Motivation

Initially the title of this article may seem as if it runs contrary to your common sense. After all, we all hate to struggle. Dealing with difficulties in life can be scary, frustrating and exhausting. No one looks forward to going through one of life's rough patches, but we should. I haven't mastered this yet, but I'm certainly trying. I'm trying to embrace the challenges I face in my life rather than curse them. The reason for this is simple.

Low Carb Eating asked a bunch of fitness experts on how to get back into the swing of an exercise program. They had plenty of advice! This is Part II.

by Suzzane Andrews, Host of Functional Fitness on PBS

Low Carb Eating asked a bunch of fitness experts on how to get back into the swing of an exercise program. They had plenty of advice!

Getting Out of Your Own Way

by Kristin Anderson, Fitness Expert

I read a post on Dr. Mike's blog about of friend of his that got off track with her low carbing for a while, and how she found her way back. If you haven't read it, it's well worth the time: Meditating in the Garden of Self-Loathing. It has the ring of recognizability to many folks, I suspect.

Ok, so it happened. Things were going along swimmingly, you were on top of the world and it was all falling effortlessly in to place when suddenly, there it was: temptation, smacking you in the face!

I know for some folks, having a "lose-by" date can be motivating and help keep them on track, focused.

But these dates can sometimes be a bigger obstacle than help. You may be asking the wrong questions here. Instead of asking, “How can I lose X pounds by this date?” Maybe the question should be, “How can I continue to make progress that I can maintain?"

Find out if your lose-by date is helping or hurting, and what you might focus on instead...

Guilt. It's pervasive in the life of a many a person looking to lose weight. Guilt over what you've eaten. Guilt over what you didn't eat. (Are you wasting food? Don't you remember those starving children in China your mother mentioned when you didn't clean your plate?) Guilt over skipping exercise. Even guilt over "wasting" the last X years of your life by not watching your weight. If only you had been more vigilant before, you wouldn't be in this situation. Guilt, guilt, guilt!

All that guilt is enough to make you fat. Really.

Now, I know that's a mighty big promise. And you're not reading a back issue of the Weekly World News where the next article is about Batboy mating with the alien chick. Nope. This is a one-step primer for how to totally eliminate all tempation from your life. But before we get rid of it, let's define it.

Negative self-talk hurts. It doesn’t motivate. It doesn’t clarify. It doesn’t prompt personal responsibility or better choices or more progress or any other positive outcome. Period.

This is one of those elegantly simple truths, if you ask me. It borders on a no-brainer, except that emotionally, it’s SO easy to slide into the trap—BWAP!—so maybe you should give it a second thought, Sparky.

A common dieter's disease that you see running rampant: Scale-itis. As in: How can I lose 2 kajillion pounds in three minutes? Or something along those lines.

Now I get this. I so get it. But if you stop for a second and think about where it comes from, it may change your perspective a bit.

See, it's like this: You've seen people who have EVERY SINGLE indication of being successful at losing weight, short having the scale read what they want, and what happens? Blind panic, right?